Download Confederate Outlaw: Champ Ferguson and the Civil War in Appalachia: Conflicting Worlds: New Dimensions of the American Civil War AudioBook Free
In the fall of 1865, the United States Army performed Confederate guerrilla Champ Ferguson for his role in murdering fifty-three dedicated individuals of Kentucky and Tennessee during the Civil War. Long remembered as the utmost unforgiving and inglorious warrior of the Confederacy, Ferguson has often been dismissed by historians as a cold-blooded killer. In Confederate Outlaw: Champ Ferguson and the Civil War in Appalachia, biographer Brian D. McKnight demonstrates how such a simple view ignores the difficulty of this famous character. In his evaluation, McKnight retains that Ferguson fought the warfare on personal conditions and with a vintage Testament mentality regarding the righteousness of his cause. He thought that friends were friends and foes were foes - no middle ground existed. As a result, he wiped out prewar comrades as well as longtime adversaries without regret, even while knowing that he might one day face his own sibling, who dished up as a Union scout. Ferguson's continued reputation demonstrates that his bloody legend did not die on the gallows. Widespread rumors endured of his last-minute break free from justice, and as time passes, the borderland terrorist surfaced as a folk hero for many southerners. Numerous creators resurrected and romanticized his report for popular followers, but McKnight's analysis deftly separates the common myths from simple fact and weaves a thoughtful, captivating, and accurate family portrait of the Confederacy's most celebrated guerrilla. An impeccably researched biography, Confederate Outlaw provides an abundance of understanding into Ferguson's wartime motivations, actions, and strategies, and also explains borderland loyalties, guerrilla operations, and military retribution. McKnight concludes that Ferguson, and other unusual warriors operating during the Civil War, found the discord as far more of a personal battle than a political one.
